title: Invited article: a test-facility for large-area microchannel plate detector assemblies using a pulsed sub-picosecond laser.
abstract: The Large Area Picosecond Photodetector Collaboration is developing large-area fast photodetectors with time resolution </~10 ps and space resolution </~1 mm based on atomic layer deposition-coated glass Micro-Channel Plates (MCPs). We have assembled a facility at Argonne National Laboratory for characterizing the performance of a wide variety of microchannel plate configurations and anode structures in configurations approaching complete detector systems. The facility consists of a pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser with a pulse duration ≈100 fs, an optical system allowing the laser to be scanned in two dimensions, and a computer-controlled data-acquisition system capable of reading out 60 channels of anode signals with a sampling rate of over 10 GS/s. The laser can scan on the surface of a sealed large-area photodetector, or can be introduced into a large vacuum chamber for tests on bare 8 in.-square MCP plates or into a smaller chamber for tests on 33-mm circular substrates. We present the experimental setup, detector calibration, data acquisition, analysis tools, and typical results demonstrating the performance of the test facility.
authors.affiliation: Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave., Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chollet
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elagin
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Oberla
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vostrikov
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wetstein
authors.forename: Razib
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Obaid
authors.forename: Preston
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Webster